Reflective Summary

This class has been great. I feel like I have learned a lot about myself and different things that I want to be the case in my future classroom.

I have learned how important it is to have cultural and social capital in different settings. And how some people will have cultural capital no matter where they go, for example Dalton Conley in Honky. Because he was white he was treated like royalty in some cases even when he was the minority. In order to fit in you need some sort of social capital, without it you may not be taken seriously. Being the other put this idea of having cultural and social capital being tools that can be used to fit in.

I also learned that poverty is a thing that people really do struggle with even in todays world. Even if students are at a Title I school, this doesn't mean that they have then materials needed to complete every thing that you may require for homework. For example a student whose family is considered working poor, probably doesn't have a computer that is needed to do research outside of class. I think I understand this a little bit more after having applied for food stamps and seeing how poor some people actually are.

Though I think that inclusive pedagogy is probably the thing that thing that I learned most about. I hadn't every really thought about how important it is to structure lessons so that all cultures felt included. And it isn't only your lessons that need this structuring, your classroom does as well.

I think that as a whole the different values that I have will allow me to accomplish this idea of inclusive pedagogy within my classroom. Hard work allows all individuals to overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable. I also think that after hearing about single stories and how misleading they can be have helped me to realize how important it is to get to know your students for yourself and not make any quick judgments.

All in all this class has taught me a lot and I think that is evident in my desire to get to know my students at a more deeper level so that I can best help them to succeed not only within my classroom, but in life as a whole.

Book Club

Honky, was a very interesting book. This book put a lot of things into prospective for me. At first I did not realize that honky was a racial slur against white people. I think the thing that I learned the most is that you can't make any quick judgments about anybody based on where they live, their skin color, etc... There are so many different single stories out there, and they are probably wrong.
I really enjoyed how once the author went to a different school, and made some new friends, his desire to learn new things skyrocketed. Because of this desire he spent so much time and effort to learn the mysteries of math and science. This leads me to believe that everyone wants to learn they just need help finding what interests them the most. As a teacher, I plan on trying to make connections with a lot of different things so that everybody can have a chance finding out what interests them the most, leading to a stronger desire to learn mathematics. All to often I think teachers are not ready to help a student get past their "past" and find out what they are really made of.
I thought it was really neat how at first the author was "ignorant" of his ethnicity and how it varied from others. What would happen if we could have that ignorance at our age. Would this make the world a better place? Teachers are in a very good spot to be able to help others break down these misconceptions about other races and ethnicities and help students become "one" regardless of backgrounds.

Community Experience

For this activity I applied for food stamps.
As I was doing this, there were a couple of things that really stuck out to me. For example the monthly gross income that would qualify a household for food stamps was staggeringly low. For a household of two individuals the income couldn't surpass $1,594 which is pretty low. My wife and I both work and we bring in more money than that but we still struggle to pay for groceries some months. Now once you for every individual on top of that you get an additional $414. So if my wife and I were to have a kid, then we would only need to make less than $2,008 a month, which would be the case. This makes me wonder about those families that do receive food stamps. And on a educational basis, I wonder how their children are holding up in school.
If families were to receive food stamps they probably don't have very many "extras" that I have, for example that probably don't have a nice tv, laptop, car, and other "toys" like I do. This would be very difficult. I couldn't imagine doing my homework without access to a computer.
It could also be the case that some individuals who would qualify for these food stamps would be afraid to actually apply, because they would be too afraid of being judged by their friends and others that know them. Just like when we talked about being the other and being put into a new situation, applying for food stamps could be very hard and scary, if you were in a position were you didn't have much.
I think this is where it is important for you to look at your own values and aspirations. Would you rather be made fun of because you qualified for food stamps or would you like to be able to buy food for your family so that they can survive without too much stress?
Poverty is a very real thing in todays world, but I feel like that those that are in the heart of it are to afraid to ask for the right help because of the judgement that may come down on them by their peers.
As a result of participating in this activity, I have made a goal to be more understanding of those that may be experiencing poverty and do what I can to make things easier for them.

Personal Values

My values are

1. Organization
2. Cheerfulness
3. Hard Work
4. Open mindedness
5. Perseverance

I think that these values say a lot about me and what kind of teacher I will be. Organization is at the top of my list for a reason. It is easy to get distracted if things are not organized, however if as a teacher I have an organized classroom it will be inviting for all individuals to come in and be happy, cheerful. Because I value hard work, I will expect a hard work ethic from my students, this does not mean that I will hold each student to the same amount of work done, but each student will be required to give it 100% which may not be the same for every student. I also value open mindedness, I was to be able to learn lots from my colleagues, but more importantly I want to be able to learn from each of my students, even if it is only things that I can do to better prepare for the next class. I also what my students to understand that they need to persevere when assignments become difficult to complete. 

I think that these values mean that as a teacher I will be inviting to everybody, but expect a hard work and dedication from each and every student no matter their background. 

Being the "other"

 For this experiment of being the other, I went to two different markets. I went to Rancho Markets and The Asian Market.

This was a weird experience for me. I felt really alone. There was music playing on a loud speaker but I didn't know what was being said. Most of the things at Rancho Market where labeled in spanish so I didn't know what exactly things where, luckily there were English subtitles to a lot of things. I felt alone and helpless. I could really sense that others were treating everybody like friends except for me. It took a lot of time for anybody to say anythings to me, finally a stock man smiled at me and gave me a nod, like how you doing. This made me feel better and more in place. There were a lot of hispanics that would just come and go, like I would at a normal supermarket, yet i didn't really know how to act, where to find things, and what to do.

At the Asian Market, things were really different, there weren't very many people there but, the employees would talk to me. Here there were a lot of different items, that aren't really at our regular supermarkets.

This experience reminded me a lot of the beginning of my mission. I didn't really know what to say and felt really antsy inside. Something that I helped open my eyes, is the fact that both of these markets where very small and I felt lost inside of them, I could only imagine how these cultures feel shopping in a Wal*Mart or Smith's.

As I didn't really know how to act and how to act, I could imagine a student that doesn't feel at home, in the classroom could have a hard time participating or contributing to the discussion, if he or she feels alone. This experience really opened my eyes.

Personal Artifacts

Here are a few pictures of the things that describe me.

So why did I pick these items? At a quick glance it would seem that I have a lot of interest in my life, but this is the extent of what I do and who I am. So for a look into my life here are the artifacts and a  description of what they say about me.

Netflix Home Screen

Movies

Marriage Certificate and picture from Wedding

My wife and I were married in the temple, entering into a culture of people that have been married into the temple and can have an eternal family.

Sports Paraphernalia
I enjoy playing all kinds of sports, in fact playing sports dictates what I do on weekends durning the entire year and almost the whole week during the summer.

Cookbook

Dish Soap

Food

I love cooking and eating food, especially trying new things, in fact I am always doing. And doing the dishes, I love a clean kitchen

Math books and Calculator
Math is my life. I guess that would make a be why I want to be a Math teacher, but I couldn't imagine my life without math. I am always looking for challenges and figuring out how to apply math to my life everyday. This is unique, not many people have that same kind of love and appreciation for math. 

Souvenir from Madagascar
I absolutely loved my mission, I feel like I became a Malagasy (people of Madagascar). But the real reason, I included this is because, since my mission, all of my buddies from the mission have formed a bond that cannot be broken, we are there for each other, and are always finding time to spend together. 

High School Diploma 

 

Seminary Diploma

Tools
Fixing things is one of my forte's. I am a handyman that is always looking for excuses to have to buy new tools that I can use to build/fix things around the house. 

Carolina Tarheels Fan Gear

Camping Tent

Ties
I love dressing up and looking nice.

                                                                 

Puzzle

Lawn Mower

Washington D.C. Temple

Family Sculpture 

Children Books

Well this is a quick look into my culture. I love my family, and I am so excited to have one of my own. Appearance means a lot to me. But most of all it is important to me that things around me look nice and are usable. As is education. This will be very useful in the classroom. There are a lot of things that I feel describe me and who I am and who I will become. It is interesting to see how these kinds of things will impact my future classroom, hopefully all for the better.

Cultural Snapshot

For this portion of my portfolio, I choose to do a snapshot of the African American males culture. 

In the media African Americans are widely viewed as either really good athletes or "gangsters" here are a few examples. 

Michael Jordan Top 10 Dunks

Kobe Bryant Top 10

The next couple of videos are music videos of different rappers, I apologize in advance if there are some words that go against your morals, I tried to get the clean versions.

Lil Wayne Love Me

Notice how many words they are having to bleep out.

Coolio Gangsters Paradise

Chamillionaire Ridin' Dirty

As I was collecting these articles, I was trying to find a 'single story' behind them. However because they range from athletes to criminals I don't know if there is a 'single story' that characterizes my five articles. But when viewed individually, one can say that African Americans in the United States are 'famous' whether it be for doing something great, like in the case of Michael Jordan, or for doing something wrong, in the case of the criminals. You could say that if they aren't good athletes or extraordinary in what they do they are perceived as criminals or thugs. The media fails to portray the in-betweens, the everyday working male. It is also perceived that they are not very smart. 

With this in mind, a male teenager of the African American descent, may feel the pressure to have to be extraordinary at a certain sport or he will end up on the streets fighting in different gang wars. Thus in the school setting, his peers may make fun of him if he isn't the star football or basketball player. He isn't seen as one that does well in his academics, putting more pressure on him. As a teacher it is important to make sure that these misconceptions are not leading to how these individuals are viewed in the classroom. If they aren't getting support from us as teachers it is very possible that the pressure to do well in sports or become wealthy is too much for them and they fall into the stereotype that we have given to them as thugs.